Crowds of mourners and high ranking individuals pay respects to Pope Francis
Pope Bergoglio: His Last Implications for the Common Good, and His Last Message to the U.S. Bishops
Pope Francis was the most important person on the planet, but he also reminded people that he was the child of immigrants. He raised his voice on behalf of migrants from his first days as pope, 12 years ago, to almost his last breath.
Mario Bergoglio, the father of the pope, left Italy in 1929 in order to head to South America after the fall of fascists in the country.
And the very next day, he reminded a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress that as his family had come to Argentina from Italy, today many migrants came to the U.S. through long, hard journeys up from South America, “…in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities,” said Francis. Is this what we want for our children?
The pope wrote a letter to the U.S. bishops a few days before he was admitted to the hospital.
He cited lives of people of the Bible who had been expelled from or fled from their lands, and said he also understood that new arrivals could disrupt the lives of those already there.
Pope Francis said in one of his last messages that the true common good was promoted when society and government included vulnerable people.
The funeral mass of Francis Bergoglio in Santa Maria Maggiore with the Vatican on Friday night: The first pope to be laid to rest outside the Vatican
In an autobiographical book, published last year under the title “El Sucesor,” Francis suggested a pope should be buried “with dignity, but like any Christian, because the bishop of Rome is a pastor and a disciple, not a powerful man of this world.” He requested the Latin name “Franciscus” be inscribed on his tomb, which will be made with marble quarried from the northwest Italian region of Liguria, from where the grandparents of Francis – born Jorge Mario Bergoglio – had emigrated to Argentina.
Argentina’s president Javier Milei is attending the funeral mass too, as will the president and prime minister of Ireland, the presidents of Poland and Brazil, the outgoing chancellor of Germany, the King of Spain, and Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russian media claimed that Putin wouldn’t attend the event. If he lands in Italy he will be arrested because of a warrant from the International Criminal Court.
Francis’ coffin will be welcomed by a group of the poor and needy on the steps of Santa Maria Maggiore’s Basilica after the mass.
It is the first time in 114 years that a pope won’t be laid to rest inside the Vatican. For the past 3 days tens of thousands of people have lined up outside the church to pay their respects, before a small group of Church officials sealed his coffin on Friday night.
A cardinal from Italy, Giovanni Battista Re, presided over a funeral mass with prayers in several languages including Arabic, Portuguese and Polish. As the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Re will also soon oversee the conclave of 135 cardinals that will meet to elect the next pope at some point in the second week of May.
President Trump stood with former President Joe Biden and his wife, as well as the secretary-general of the United Nations, and other heads of state during the morning mass.
At 10am local time on Saturday, a priest with a cross led a procession into the center of the plaza, where a New Testament was placed on the coffin. The Italian government says as many as 200,000 people joined the ceremony, and the Vatican has released a list of attendees that includes political leaders and heads of state from more than 110 nations.
The coffin containing the 88-year-old man’s body will be placed in a church less than two miles away after he died of heart failure and a stroke.
